This is a boring blog with pictures of my family, my pets, and projects that I'm working on. I sew, garden, play with the equines, run, shop, read obsessively and have far too many hobbies to keep up with. Married, with 2 little kids that terrorize me: Leah is 8 and Eric is 11. Live on an acreage in Alberta, Canada with 1 horse and 1 pony, various outdoor cats, 1 fluffy hamster, 1 tiger salamander, and 2 hermit crabs. And that is AFTER cutting down on pets!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

I wouldn't go outside at all if I didn't have outdoor animals. The cats are shut in the hay shed. They have lots of blankets, and I bring them out water a couple times a day. To get in the shed, you have to dig out two feet of snow first.

I blanketed my horse. She's wearing a polar fleece blanket with a rainsheet over it. When the wind stops, I'll switch her to a winter blanket. The two ponies are tough and are doing fine despite being full of snow.

About every four hours I go outside. The first challenge is the drift at the back door. I fall through it, up to my thighs. Next, I dig out that 2 feet of snow at the hay shed. I get a load of hay, and climb over the pasture fence. The gate is snowed over. Notice the drift the ponies are standing beside in the picture? It's 5 feet tall. I've NEVER had drifts that big in the 13 years I've lived here. I give them the hay, and check that they are okay. I grab the rubber feed bucket, and go back to the water trough. It's snowed over. I bang on it until the snow and ice cracks, then wet my gloves to pull the 3 inch thick pan of ice and snow out of it. I bring a bucket of water back to the horses. Then, I go back to the hay shed, get the cat's water dish, dump it, and refill it with warm water from the house (climbing over that back door drift again), and take it back to them. Then I get back inside quickly since my wet gloves are starting to freeze!

If you've ever skiied through the snow from a snow making machine, then you know how that wind driven snow feels on my face when I'm out. But animals must be cared for, and in a weird way, it's fun to go outside in such extreme weather.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

I bought this wool coat from a garage sale for $1. The seller told me she had bought it in Finland/Sweden/one of those little European countries (I can't remember which). I love the style and fit of the coat, plus, as an amazing bonus (besides it's price!), is that the sleeves are actually long enough on me. (And it has all it's buttons, I was too lazy to do them all up for the picture).

Then, my mom commented that it looked good on me, and that my brother has a coat just like it. UGHHH!

I wanted to make the coat NOT look like something my brother would wear, so I went hunting at fabric stores. It took a while, but I eventually found this pink & grey flower trim.

It certainly dresses up the coat, doesn't it!

Close up of the trim - it's kind of hairy, which gives it a soft look, and goes well with the texture of the wool coat.

I have many metres left of this trim, and I'd like to put more on the coat, but I'm not sure where to put it.

A "bracelet" around the sleeves? Along the bottom hem? Down the front, as fake princess seams? Down the edge of the front, but that would be asymmetric?Along the pockets? A shape on the back of the coat - like a star, flower, something like that? Or leave it as good enough?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Eric's friend's hamster had babies... so now we have two girl hamsters.

Eric's hamster is the brown one, named Cinny (short for Cinnamon). Leah's is the white and brown (who has the shape of a Llama on it's back!), named Hamsy.

Cinny is quite the hamster. She knows how to open the door she's sticking out of in the picture. One morning, they were exploring the living room... we thought the cage door was left open. A few days later, I'm watching TV, and Cinny walks by... Hmm, put her away, and watched her open the cage door... I made her do it over and over again, I just couldn't believe it! It's kept shut with an extra clip now!

And the cage, well, I got it from a garage sale, bought from a person I went to school with in junior high! And, for my birthday one year, she gave me a hamster!! Funny, uh?

Monday, May 25, 2009

We were at the cemetery in Sedgewick to bury my Grandmother, and I was struck at beautiful and innocent Leah looked. My Grandmother may be gone, but her blood lives on in this little girl.

The second part of this post is her pants. She refuses to wear jeans, and most other pants or dresses and skirts, leaving her with very limited options! I sewed her these "beach pants" from a knit fabric I found at a thrift store. She loves them, especially the palm trees on her behind, and the pink and purple colours.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

My favorite thrift store (Mennonite Central Committee) had a half price sale on fabric last week. I had limited time (was shopping in the city while Leah was at playschool), but I still managed to pick out 19.9 METRES of fabric. At 75c per metre, that's a HUGE savings over buying at a store.

I managed to sneak back a few days later, with a little more time on my hands, and picked out another 13.4 metres. That's 33.3m of fabric, for $24. I asked why they had so much fabric (there were boxes and boxes of it - lots of 1980's polyesters), and they said that a church had a fabric sale, and had donated all the leftovers.

That's my 33m+ pile of new fabric, all washed and ready to be sewn. the pieces range in size from .7m to 6.5m. Most are cotton (or blended) knits.

Some highlights:

The top 2 fabrics have silver threads through them, and one piece has a flower design, and the second is snakeskin (what the heck am I going to do with those??)

the first blue from the top is 4m of a lightweight denim type fabric with a herringbone pattern to it (pants??)

the grey/blue/black fabric just under the white knit is a polyester that I plan to make a skirt out of

the blue/green fabric directly under it is interesting - it's a fine tulle with a plush pattern of flowers - maybe a princess dress for a little girl (good thing I have one of those!)

everything below that is a knit (except for the piece of animal-print polar fleece).

the green and blue fabrics will probably be pajamas for DH

the blue print (polyester knit) will be a top for me

the black is 4-way stretch cotton-lycra and has an interesting crinkled texture to it

the very bottom is a thick, soft double knit that really looks like denim and would make lovely pajamas

Since I probably won't have much time for sewing until the fall (it's gardening and horse riding season now!), I might save this pile of fabric for next winter's Stash Contest at Pattern Review.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I put up these purchased curtains to help keep the room warmer. But, cold air flows out from the gap at the bottom.

Leah modeling the draft stoppers (also known as "sausages"). You can see the gap between the curtains and the floor. (If I had hung the curtains lower, the window molding would have shown at the top). The white one is her own personal "sausage" because she insisted that she needed one too. (Oh the fun of trying to sew while little kids are home!)

Sewing the stuffing into a sausage.

The draft stoppers in use.

The green furry fabric came from the thrift store a year ago. I wish I had enough of it to make all 4 draft stoppers since it matches the carpet so well. The burgundy flannel is 7 years old. I stuffed the green draft stoppers with quilt batting picked up at an annual village clean-up (includes a "give and take" area), and the two burgundy flannel are stuffed with fabric scraps. Leah's "sausage" is 1 metre of fun fur rolled up and sewn. The other 4 draft stoppers took 1/2 yard each.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

This coat is based on the "Jacket with zipper, hood and ribbing waistband" from the Kwik Sew's Sewing for Children book.

Satin stitching the cat on the back.

Coat uses 4 different fabrics, all found at the thrift store in the last few years. I might add more of the leopard fun fur to the cuffs and hood, but I need Leah to try it on first, and I won't be giving her the coat until Monday (her birthday!).

I made sure the cat on the back wouldn't be covered by the hood. I did that on a sweater of my own -- the hood covers the horse I stitched on the back (duh!).

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Pajamas, size S, using sweatshirt pattern and no-side seam pants. The dark spot on the pants is the navy grosgrain ribbon I used to mark the back.

I put snaps at one shoulder seam. Fabric age: 8 years.

T-shirt dress, size S. I really don't like how it looks, so I satin stitched a heart on the front with variegated woolly nylon to try to dress it up. Mint fabric is stash aged 3 years, darker green is 7 years.

Tiered skirts, size S. Fabrics are all 2 or 3 years old.

Close up of bunny prints on purple skirt.

Another tiered skirt. The black fabric is a faux suede with a satin like wrong side (about 18m old, thrift store find), and the animal print I believe came from Fabricland about 8 years ago.

Lined plaid straight skirt. Not very happy with how it turned out, but it's cute when Leah is wearing it. She's tired of modeling, photo shoots and being measured, poor girl! Fabric and lining came from my mom about 2 years ago.

Eric in his side-seam pants in stretch denim. Size S, with length added to legs. They are a bit baggy on him, but he did say they were comfortable as soon as he put them on. Fabric is 2 or 3 years old.